April 26, 2015 – Kurt Busch led 291 laps on his way to a commanding victory in the rain-delayed Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Busch scored his 26th career NASCAR Cup Series victory and first since his Martinsville win in April of 2014. He led a 1-2 finish for Stewart-Haas Racing as Kevin Harvick followed Busch across the finish line to come home second despite battling a broken track bar. Jimmie Johnson started 36th after a poor qualifying effort but was able to get back to the front battling brake problems along the way and posted a third-place finish
April 26, 2014 – Joey Logano came from fourth on the final restart to win his second NASCAR Cup Series race of the season in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. Logano triumphed in a furious battle over the last five laps with Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski to score his fifth career win. Emotions boiled over after the race when Keselowski expressed his anger at Kenseth for an incident between the two in the closing laps. Then Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears were involved in a garage area scuffle with punches thrown.
April 26, 2013 – Brad Keselowski ended Kyle Busch’s three-race winning streak in the NASCAR Xfinity (Nationwide) Series by capturing the checkered flag in the ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond Raceway, but the talk afterward was where Nelson Piquet Jr. kicked Brian Scott in a post-race scuffle. Scott climbed from his car and approached Piquet on pit road after the race. Words were exchanged and they shoved each other before Piquet kicked Scott below the belt. Scott said he approached Piquet because he was upset about how Piquet raced him late in the event.
April 26, 2009 – Brad Keselowski survived a last lap tangle with Carl Edwards to win the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. Keselowski and Edwards were in a neck and neck duel to the checkered flag when they made contact. Edwards’ car was sent flying through the air after getting rammed by Ryan Newman and crashed hard into the frontstretch retaining fence before finally coming to a halt on in the infield apron. With the field behind him, Keselowski was the winner of the race in only his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start. Edwards was miraculously uninjured in the spectacular crash and actually ran across the finish line on foot after climbing from his battered car to the wild cheers of the jammed grandstands. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan Newman followed Keselowski across the finish line for second and third.
April 26, 2008 – It took Tony Stewart 24 attempts, but he was finally able to pull into Victory Lane at Talladega Superspeedway. In 18 NASCAR Cup and six Xfinity Series starts, Stewart was able to get the win by taking the checkered flag in the Xfinity Series Aaron’s 312. Stewart led 80 of the 117 laps en route to his third victory of the season and the fifth of his career. David Stremme finished second to tie his career-best series finish.
April 26, 2008 – Ron Hornaday won his first NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race of the season in the O’Reilly 250 at Kansas Speedway. Hornaday, who led 136 laps, held off his Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate Jack Sprague to pick up the checkered flag after starting from the pole.
April 26, 2003 – Matt Kenseth became the seventh different Busch Series winner in 2003 with a victory in the 1-800-Pit-Shop 300 at Auto Club (California) Speedway over Michael Waltrip and Kevin Harvick. The win was Kenseth’s third (of four) in the Xfinity Series at ACS and the 13th (of 29) of his career.
April 26, 1998 – Bobby Labonte got by his brother Terry on the backstretch with two to go and went on to win the DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Labonte had to hold off Jimmy Spencer to give Pontiac its first restrictor-plate victory. The race featured a major 20-car crash on Lap 141 that saw Bill Elliott go for a wild ride.
April 26, 1981 – Morgan Shepherd led 203 laps, including the final 114 to score his first NASCAR Cup Series win in the Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He won by 15 seconds over Neil Bonnett, the only other driver on the lead lap.
Other winners on this date: 1997 – Mark Martin (Talladega, Xfinity Series); 1992 – Mark Martin (Martinsville); 1987 – Dale Earnhardt (Martinsville); 1964 – Fred Lorenzen (Martinsville); 1959 – Junior Johnson (Reading Fairgrounds); 1953 – Dick Rathman (Central City Speedway)
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